Color matching is as much of an art as it is a science.
There exist various systems for describing colors. For example, CMYK system approximates colors to their closest Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) and Black (K) pigments and works on the basis that two printers or display devices using the same proportions of pigments should produce approximately the same color.
A more accurate system is the pantone system which is a commonly used system for matching colors in printing and inks. A number of spot colors are standardised and each given a pantone number. Most of these cannot be simulated using CMYK as they are formed from proportions of 14 base pigments. Pantone color numbers are used to prescribe colors to be used in reproducing all manner of items including logos and other typographic material and flags.
If a standardised color such as a pantone is selected from the outset, it can be reasonably straightforward to reproduce the desired color. However, when a user is faced with a sample of a product, a paint, an ink or fabric, for example, identifying the color becomes much more complex.
Color identification and matching in the interior design field, for example, has traditionally been a time-consuming and imprecise process. An interior designer or consumer currently attempts to match swatches from wallpaper, fabrics and paint chips in the hope that when in the intended environment they still look the same. One particular issue is that a perceived color is dependent on lighting. A color viewed in a retail store under fluorescent lighting will often look different to the color when viewed in sunlight or at the consumer's home.
While there exist measurement devices that apply an analytical and scientific approach rather than a subjective approach to color measurement, these are typically bench based devices that are large, expensive and fragile due to the need to maintain a standardised and calibrated measurement environment.